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Explorers Club: Antarctica

The Explorers Club: Antarctica is an award-winning live performance in story and song telling the tales of Capatin Scott, Ernest Shackleton and the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration. Written by Sam Prebble, performed by Bond Street Bridge and featuring original illustrations by Emily Cater.﻿ Touring constantly, album available now on Banished From The Universe Records.

Press:

'It is a rare thing to come away from a concert feeling that you have been taken physically to another place and have to struggle to find your way back to the familiar. Such is the genius and commitment of singer/songwriter Sam Prebble and fellow musicians Nina McSweeney (vocals) and Brendan Turner (bass guitar/vocals) and the performance they gave... a tour de force.' the Nelson Mail

'Beautiful, sad and utterly mesmerising. You will go away a richer person for having seen this.' Gather and Hunt.co.nz

'Stunning... a performance to make hairs stand up on the back of your neck' Whanganui Chronicle'This was a rollicking show. Wonderful tunes and excellent visuals created a night of entertaining pathos. There was something for everyone no matter how much or how little they knew of the icy continent and its history.' Te Radar

Details:

Following an epic year of sold-out shows and rave reviews, Auckland
alt-folksters Bond Street Bridge continue to melt hearts as they weave their
stories of icy adventure and Edwardian courage.

In The
Explorers Club: Antarctica, Bond Street Bridge use a combination of spoken
word storytelling, original folk songs, and multimedia projections of heritage
images to bring to life the incredible tales of the Heroic Age of Antarctic
Exploration. Captain Scott’s tragic
death on the Great Ice Barrier and the extraordinary survival of the crew of
Shackleton’s Endurance are presented
as stirring ballads, heartbreaking elegies and foot-stomping sea shanties.

Since its premier in the 2013 New
Zealand Fringe Festival, the show and accompanying album have garnered critical
acclaim and played to sold-out houses at Arts Festivals, theatres, museums and
bar-rooms around the country. Bond
Street Bridge tour and play constantly, with over 100 shows on the road in
2013, with their extraordinary live show earning them recognition for ‘best music’ at the 2013 NZ Fringe Festival Awards.
Described as a ‘perfect evening
of music’ by the Dominion Post
and a ‘Tour de Force’ by the Nelson Mail, ‘The Explorers Club: Antarctica’
showcases a unique band at the height of its powers.

This one-of-a-kind show and album
are the product of Bond Street Bridge frontman Sam Prebble’s obsession with the
stories and heroes of a dramatic period of history a century ago. Reading diaries, letters, and published
accounts of the early Antarctic expeditions, Prebble used the words of the
explorers themselves to create songs which pay tribute to their legacy and
celebrate the indomitable spirit of this lost age.

‘We think of these as folk stories in the same sense as folk songs’
says Prebble. ‘One of the reasons we
drive all over the place sharing these stories is that they are tales that belong
to everyone, and tales need to be kept alive by being told.’

The band’s live reputation saw
them invited to showcase the production at a string of sold-out gala events at
galleries, museums and arts festivals around the country on their 2013 album
release tour, including appearances at the Museum of Wellington City & Sea,
the Voyager NZ Maritime Museum in Auckland, the Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui,
the MTG Hawkes Bay and the Nelson, Queenstown and Taranaki Arts Festivals.

In early 2014, the band were
invited to open for Billy Bragg on his New Zealand tour at the sold-out Opera
House in Wellington and the Powerstation in Auckland. In September they will be taking their show
to the Sydney and Melbourne Fringe Festivals and touring new work around NZ. They are currently working on a follow-up
show set to premier in a number of NZ festivals in 2015.

Friends of Bond Street Bridge

About Me

Bond Street Bridge is a musical project that I write the songs for. My real name's Sam and I play a bunch of things in a bunch of bands. Most of my songs have got birds in them somewhere. One day I will own a zeppelin.